Real ways restaurants, bars and cafés use AI agents: phone orders, table bookings, staff training and supplier orders.
7 use cases so far.
A voice agent takes table bookings and sends them to n8n, which picks a free table, handles cancellations and reschedules, and frees tables after 90-minute slots, all in Google Sheets.
A Connecticut venue owner used Claude Code to build 80+ n8n workflows in 28 days: POS sales reports, food cost tracking, staff tools, an event CRM and demand forecasts, with no new monthly software fees.
A voice agent takes phone orders from a live menu, suggests add-ons, adds tax and reads back the total, then the order appears in a Google Sheet the kitchen watches.
A four-café chain put its 25-page handbook into a custom GPT and connected Notion, so staff ask questions on an in-store iPad. Onboarding went from weeks to days and staff WhatsApp questions dropped by half.
The same café chain uses ChatGPT to explain unusually slow or busy weeks (students leaving, local events) and to size up new locations, and is testing ordering from suppliers through ChatGPT Agent.
In an experiment in Stockholm, a Gemini agent handles hiring, permits, supplier accounts and ordering while people make the coffee. It over-ordered bread and other items, a useful warning for anyone trying this.
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